


ask the moon how they reflect

by Tomohisa



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, POV Second Person, a tiny bit of sign language too, merman!kenma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-24 01:45:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7488498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tomohisa/pseuds/Tomohisa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thoughts begin flooding into your head, reassessing the improbable against the <i>impossible</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ask the moon how they reflect

**Author's Note:**

> This is a bit of a random drabble I came up with the other day. I haven’t been able to sit and write out more for my longer fics recently, so this was a chance to just let the words flow and see what I came out with. (I’ve also been playing an excessive amount of Pokémon Go over the past few days, which doesn’t leave much time for writing either, haha.)
> 
> As always, let me know what you guys think! I wrote most of it in one sitting, so feel free to point out any errors in the text.
> 
> The title is from [‘Gold’ by Vinyl Theatre](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-74HmR2EOvw).

Your first thought when you see him is, _Who has Hinata brought this time?_

His friend has the kind of posture that screams _don’t look at me_. Unfortunately, as tempting as it is to blank out the newcomer, the way Hinata guides the other boy’s wheelchair forwards makes him impossible to ignore. It must be an old model, because three of the four wheels squeak under the strain of each stuttered push.

“Guys, this is Kenma!” The red-head gives the stranger a bright smile as he moves to his side. ‘Kenma’ gives him a twitch of a smile in return. “He’s never seen a volleyball match before, so I thought I’d bring him along!”

Hinata’s new friend seems warm enough under his covering of blankets, but he shivers under the combined weight of the team’s curious staring. You’re not looking at his face though, so you don’t notice the way his expression remains carefully blank under their gaze. Or the way his eyes blink continuously, like he’s resisting the urge to rub the dryness out of them. Or how golden they are.

What you _do_ notice is his hair. It’s dark at the roots, though it pales into gold at the ends. You have no idea why someone would let their hair end up like that.

It looks _ridiculous_.

The rest of the team introduce themselves to him one by own. Kenma remains silent throughout, until you are left to murmur, “Tsukishima,” to those golden eyes.

He blinks once, then twice, before turning to Hinata with the slightest of frowns on his face. He makes an unfamiliar sweeping gesture with one of his hands, and the red-head nods. Kenma turns back to you, face curious.

Most of the senpai are already moving away to prepare for practice, but you remain frozen on the spot. “Sign… language?” The words tumble out of your mouth before you can stop them. Is he deaf? Or mute?

“Yeah!” Hinata pats his friend on the shoulder, his face cheery. The other boy almost leans into the touch. “Kenma’s been teaching me!”

That doesn’t answer your question in the slightest - even though you hadn’t mean to ask it in the first place. You’re left frowning and sighing under your breath as Hinata flashes a few more signs at his friend. The way his hands move through the signs suggest some kind of fluency, though you’re still surprised that Hinata has the attention span to learn a new language.

Then again, he _had_ shown _some_ level of aptitude in learning the hand signals you all use on the court.

You start wondering why you even care in the first place.

With a small sigh, you turn away from both of them. Behind you, Hinata’s cheerful, “I’ll catch you afterwards, Kenma!” is loud enough for your ears to catch.

It’s the small, “Later, Shouyou,” that has you turning, staring into eyes that are already watching you leave.

* * *

“What’re you doing?”

You keep your voice low, but you’re not even sure why you’re asking. It’s obvious that Hinata is struggling with the same wheelchair his friend had used a few days ago.

The friend whose quiet eyes burn themselves into your dreams. Kenma.

Hinata nearly falls over the front of the chair as the wheels jam again. He barely catches himself and the pile of blankets in the seat before they fall. The red-head turns to you with flushed cheeks.

“I’m just- I mean- I’m going to see Kenma!” His mouth seems unsure of whether to settle into a smile or a grimace. It compromises by twitching at the edges.

You raise an eyebrow. “With the chair.” Your voice stays flat.

Hinata’s hands tighten around the handles. “Yeah. Kenma… doesn’t have his own.”

You stare at the red-head impassively until he becomes so uncomfortable he resorts to awkwardly shuffling his feet. “...Right.”

 _Nothing_ about Hinata’s new friend makes any sense. You can put two and two together and understand where Hinata got the old wheelchair from - his mother is a doctor, after all - but why would his friend need to _borrow_ one in the first place?

You’re still mulling over what you know and _don’t_ know when Hinata speaks up again. “Anyway, Tsukishima - I have to go! Kenma is expecting me!”

He stumbles past you as quickly as he can - as quickly as the dodgy wheelchair allows. It’s not quick enough.

“You’re heading towards the beach.” It’s a statement of fact. An observation. Definitely _not_ tinged as a question.

Hinata freezes in place mid-step. He turns back to face you again as he lowers his raised foot. “I am.”

You choose not to say anything to that. You just give him the most piercing look you’re able to muster - the one that normally has him flinching back from you on the court.

“You know what?” The red-head sounds resigned. Tired. “Just come with me.” Hinata takes his hands off the handles of the chair briefly to throw them into the air. He mutters something under his breath as he turns to push it again, expecting you to follow.

In any other scenario, you probably wouldn’t have. You - normally - have better things to do.

Retrospectively, you think the words might have been, _He seems to like you anyway_ , but you’re too busy walking past Hinata - leaving him to struggle with the wheelchair on his own - to notice.

If your heart twists oddly in your chest, well. That’s nobody’s business but your own.

* * *

The air is much more bitter at the shoreline. Salty and crisp, you can almost see your breath in the air whenever you breathe out.

Behind you, Hinata is still making his way up the path that winds its way over to the gritty mix of sand and pebbles that makes up the beach. It gives you a few seconds of peace to take in the blue horizon on your own - if you tune out the red-head’s annoyed shouts at your refusal to help him.

The waves washing over the rocks closest to them help. So does the way your mind wanders. How is… Kenma going to meet Hinata here? Nothing adds up.

Out of the corner of your eye, a flash of gold slips into your vision. When you actually focus on it more, you realise it’s not so much gold as the same blondish hue that makes up Kenma’s hair. But there’s a lot more of it.

In the few seconds your brain takes to digest what it is seeing, the colour vanishes from your sight beneath the waves. A familiar head replaces it - with hair just as odd-looking as the first time you’d seen it.

Kenma stares at you, a short distance away from the shoreline. Only his eyes remain above the swirls of water. Between that and the fact that the water is probably, _definitely_ , too cold for someone to be swimming in at this time of year, the bubbles of thought you have begin to burst. Thoughts begin flooding into your head, reassessing the improbable against the _impossible_.

“Kenma!” Hinata’s excited shriek cuts through the waves crashing in your mind. He rushes forwards and next to you, dragging the chair behind himself. It protests loudly against the pebbles.

The other boy drifts a little closer into the shallower water. He lifts his head out a little higher. “Shouyou.” His voice is more gravelly than it was the first time.

You can feel the red-head beaming as Kenma approaches. He makes no move to help the other boy as he pulls himself out of the water stomach-first, over the water-laden grit and sand.

Hinata yanks the wheelchair as close to the water as he dares, and you notice for the first time that it’s empty. You can’t bring yourself to look away to check if the blankets have been scattered on the drier rocks behind you, but you suspect that’s the case.

A sharp intake of breath wrenches its way past your lips as the flash of gold from earlier is finally revealed. It wasn’t Kenma’s hair - which is far too soaked and darkened by water to look anything close to gold. It’s his tail - the same dark shade as the roots of his hair at its fins, with a dull, golden colour decorating the scales.

It’s not that impressive a colouring, in all honestly. You’re beginning to wonder how it even managed to catch your eye.

Once he’s settled in the chair, Kenma makes the same sweeping gesture you’d seen him make the first day you met. His eyes glance towards Hinata searchingly, but your eyes don’t move from his face. Even with his tail in plain view, you’re engrossed by the way a single drip of saltwater makes its way down the contours of his cheek.

“Tsuki,” Hinata confirms. He sounds amused. “He’s called Tsukishima.”

Kenma’s eyes pour themselves into you again. “Tsukki.” He stumbles over the word, but it sounds right from his tongue. His face stays blank, but the dark tips of his fins twitch over the pebbles.

“Kenma.” It feels right to say his name.

The merboy smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Mer!Kenma is something I've thought on a lot. I left a lot of questions unanswered in the main body of the fic, so I'll try to go over some of them here.
> 
> Kenma’s most-used language is actually Sign, because spoken words don’t work so well under water. He can speak and hear, but doesn't get much practice with spoken language except with Hinata. I guess in some ways, the mer-language in this fic would be like a cross between JSL and the expressive hand movements of the Adem from _The Kingkiller Chronicle_.
> 
> Hinata has been teaching Kenma some words, but most are unfamiliar to him, because it's hard to teach a completely new language to someone without any common ground. They've developed a rough, semi-understandable mix of spoken and signed words/phrases between them that they both understand. This includes a few words that Hinata has been able to point out to Kenma directly - like 'sun' and 'moon'. (On that note, ‘moon’ looks really nice in JSL! You can see it [here](https://www.spreadthesign.com/us/46875/%E3%81%A4%E3%81%8D%EF%BC%88%E6%9C%88%EF%BC%89-moon-american-english-japanese).)
> 
> Originally, I'd thought of having this fic centre around Kageyama instead of Tsukki - and I guess it might have worked for him too - but I just really like writing Kenma and Tsukki interactions.
> 
> Anyway, this was just a random setting I came up with one day whilst in the shower, so I don't think I'll be writing any more for it. Saying that, if anyone has any prompts/requests for small drabbles like this, feel free to send them to me!
> 
> [Tumblr](http://dragonshuntaswolves.tumblr.com/) || [Twitter](https://twitter.com/wolveshvnokings)


End file.
